1. Field of the Invention
The invention is an improved construction of vials furnished to patients by pharmacies, filled with doses of medicine.
2. Description of Prior Art
The existing common construction of prescription vials includes no provision for assisting the patient in keeping track of whether or not he has taken a prescribed dose of medicine. It is so very easy to forget whether or not he has taken a particular dose (according to instructions printed on the label) that many times a patient may fail to take a given dose at all, or may take a double dose near the time designated on the label. This is a serious shortcoming particularly for people who take numerous pills, since the taking of them becomes an uneventful unmemorable routine. The problem is so prevalent that the medical profession has coined a term, "non-compliance," to describe failure of the patient to comply with the doctor's orders. These consequences to the patient's well being are obvious.
My invention, which is an improvement and refinement on my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,834, overcomes a substantial part of this non-compliance--the part due to confusion or uncertainty on the part of the patient. The vial automatically tells him whether or not it has been opened.
A problem with the vial on which patent 4,489,834 was issued concerns the producibility of certain parts. Prescription vials are made in vast quantities and sell for very low prices. Therefore, cost is crucial to their acceptance. In spite of the advantages occurring from improving compliance, the cost factor of two parts has prevented acceptance by industry of my earlier counting vial. Firstly, the added part, the indicator element, which indexes part of a turn with respect to the cap each time the bottle is opened, contained a skirt directly above its finger springs. The skirt also retained the seal disc. Secondly, the threads on the top of the vial also had portions in which one ridge was above another.
Both parts thus could not be produced by a simple one-directional motion of a press; they required extra transverse motions of the die to extract the injection molded part. The extra motions not only made the dies more expensive, for high production they increased the spacing between cavities, decreasing the yield per hit, as well as potentially introducing maintenance problems.
The present invention overcomes these complexities. Both problem parts can be made with a straight fore-and-aft stroke of the moveable part of the die. Moreover, one of the parts can now be made of stamped metal which potentially reduces production time and cost even more.